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Topic: Strathearn Paperweight (Read 2923 times)

I'm fairly sure it's a Strathearn - will show Kevin & the PCC folk this weekend and confirm - but how do I tell its age? :?

I have looked at all my books - not a lot in them on Strathearn, to be honest :roll: - and checked a couple of websites (Kevin's, Frank's for Vasart and Richard More's for later Strathearn) but I am still not sure how to identify which era my new acquisition is from

Richard's 'smugmug' site had so many images that my head was spinning and I didn't know how best to learn from what I was seeing :oops:

Is there any way of identifying canes from a particular date, other than years of experience handling hundreds of weights? Basically, I suppose what I want is something (book or website) which says "these canes are from 19?? to 19?? and then these were introduced around 19?? and these from 19??" Is there anything like that? Or am I asking too much? :oops: :roll:

Anonymous

In some respects I think you've answered your own question by looking at the actual images available. Like anything else it is a process of patience and persistence....although not sure on the former but I get the impression you are well stocked up on the latter.....also if I remember correctly from an earlier posting you are fortunate enough to be blessed with instinctIt might help you to go back to Richards site as often as possible and examine and re-examine the weights.There is a facility provided by Richard, that I've only just noticed today,.....it is that although you click on the image to take you into its own gallery ..but if again you place your cursor over the new image now in the r/hand section you can enlarge it once again so that it displays almost 6" x 6" ... and in my opinion then much easier then to study the individual canes. In the small images they almost become confused by each other and difficult to differentiate.If at first you limited yourself to the general weights, excluding the dated and signed ones, on Richards site you might make the task less "overwhelming". Later you can move onto others .... a bit like building block construction.The same obviously applies to any other reference source until the data base is transferred from the source and into your head....and it will..... which is obviously beneficial if you come across a potential buy when you are out and dont have a pc or book to refer to.The added bonus of course is the buzz you get from the learning process.

I think it's a P14 or P15 according to Richard More's site. It's about 2.5" or maybe 2.7" in diameter, so I think it is classed as medium.

What puzzled me is the little heart canes. The Vasart heart canes on Frank's site are shown to be solid, but the hearts in this weight have another tiny cane in the centre of them. I think you can see one in the picture, or maybe two, but the picture isn't very good - done in a hurry :roll: - and you may not be able to see the canes in the centre of the hearts.

Another interesting point is that there is absolutely no green glass in the weight at all. :shock: The only canes that look green are actually blue encased in yellow, or yellow encased in blue!

I have looked at 'smugmug' again, until my eyes are boggled - there are over 100 in the F15 category

There must be an easier way to date this weight! It's not that I want all the work done for me, just pointing in the right direction! :?

yes Leni the mind does boggle, i was walking past this shop and seen a amberina vase, so i went for a closer look as we all do, it was blenko but the stopper was missing, but the shop had quite alot of bagley glass but nothing special, the shop was like Aladdin's cave for stuff, most of the item's he said was left after the 2nd WW and from around the Howard Carter days in 1922, he has no idea where the weight came from but it's defo not 2nd WW I'd say around the middle 70's

How to date Strathearn "closepack / carpet" weights that have no date cane ...

It's easy ...

1964 to 1980

Honestly, there is currently no simple way to give an accurate date to any of the regular production, undated, weights. They were made in their thousands and there are probably many hundreds of individual canes that could be found in these weights.

I did once ask Richard if he would consider making up a table of individual canes from at least his dated weights, rather like the tables I started for my signed Paul Ysart ones. Not surprisingly, he declined on the basis of not having the time to achieve such a mammoth task.

By producing a cane reference we might be able to see something that helps to define a period. Until then, there is no way to know - except for certain types of cane that do seem to be later production (last two or three years perhaps), but in Leni's and Ray's weights shown, there are none of these "later types".

Maybe, if I could get my hands on as many Strathearn weights as Richard has, I would have a go at tabling all the canes - but then I have still not got around to adding all the canes from my unsigned Ysart weights.

Anonymous

Hmmm. So, Kevin, you seem to be saying there is no way of telling if a Strathearn weight was made in 1964 or in 1980 :?

But in my observations I have noticed a great variety in the quality of Strathearn canes, some quite small and detailed and others quite large and simple - those I tend to call the 'dolly mixture' type. Are you saying that there is no distinction between these? That *all* these canes were likely to have been used at any time throughout the '60's and '70's?

If I have understood you, it is only possible to say that if a weight has Vasart canes it is likely to be early, and if it has some of the identifyably later canes it is likely to be - obviously enough :roll: - late, right?

Do you know if there is a book I could get, or is it best, as Gareth suggests, to just keep looking at Richard's website?

And Gareth, what you say about silence is very true. However, being thick again :oops: , I'm afraid I don't see what you mean by it in this context. Care to explain?